The need for ever-smaller pumping devices, particularly in the medical field, continues to grow. As a result, the need for increasingly small operational pump components, such as check valves, is growing as well, challenging the limits of conventional manufacturing processes. Valves less than 1 or 2 mm in size are difficult to fabricate using conventional molding technology, and while some fabrication of microscale valves using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology is being performed, such techniques can be expensive. Small, commercially available silicone valves produced using conventional techniques tend to be unreliable (exhibiting leakage and large production variations) at the sub-millimeter scale. A clear need exists for a small, reliable and durable valve that is simple to fabricate and suitable for use in microscale pumps having submillimeter component dimensions.